Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz lead U.S. into United Cup semifinals again

Team USA is back into the United Cup semifinals. The Americans, the 2023 tournament champions, swept China 3-0 on New Year's Day in Perth on the strength of two straight-sets wins by Top 5-ranked duo of Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz.

World No. 3 Gauff kicked things off with a gritty 7-6(4), 6-2 win over Zhang Shuai, before Fritz clinched the tie with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Zhang Zhizhen. Doubles players Desirae Krawczyk and Robert Galloway finished off the sweep with a 6-3, 6-7(1), 10-3 win over Zhang Shuai and Sun Fajing in mixed doubles.

Gauff came from a break down three times in the first set against Zhang Shuai, a former Top 30 player who famously ended a 24-match losing streak last fall to revitalize her career. But after the veteran failed to serve out the first set at 6-5, Gauff wrestled momentum away with a lightning-quick start to the tiebreak. She won five of the first six points en route to sealing it, and never trailed in the second set after pushing out to a 3-0 lead.

“Shuai was playing amazing tennis out there. I was literally on the ground for most of the match. The harder I hit, the harder she was hitting," Gauff said of the 35-year-old veteran, who stepped in to play singles after group-stage hero Gao Xinyu—who herself was a replacement for Zheng Qinwen—was forced out with injury.

“I felt like I couldn’t get her on defense. She was playing so aggressive on me and I felt like I had to go more on my second serves, which brought in more double faults. But if I just put it in it was a return winner so I had to take my chances.”

Fritz later leveled his all-time head-to-head against Zhang Zhizhen with a 6-4, 6-4 win. The world No. 4 and US Open finalist never faced a break point in the match, as he hammered eight aces and landed 75% of his first serves.

"Coco did such a good job putting us ahead and giving me the chance to come out and put us through," Fritz said. "There was a little bit of pressure because I didn't want to be the one who loses it for the team after Coco won all her matches this week. I played a really solid match. Really happy with it."

The U.S. will join Kazakhstan on a cross-country flight to compete in the semifinals in Sydney, but both squads will have to wait to learn their semifinal opponents. On Thursday, Iga Swiatek and Poland will face Great Britain, and Jasmine Paolini and Italy will take on Karolina Muchova and the Czechs on Friday to determine which nations will complete the lineup.